3MTR’s launch today confirmed a number of things, with some of the more interesting things being bits of information which 2GB haven’t confirmed for Sydney yet.

The schedule is below, but a couple things of interest are that Jim Ball is the confirmed overnight host despite there still being no official word of his arrival at 2GB. Interestingly, Frank Crook’s weekend overnight show is being replaced by current overnight fill-in host Mike Williams, indicating that Frank may be on his way out. If I’m not mistaken, Mike covered the last weekend, so this wouldn’t be too much of a shock.

Andrew Moore’s Wake Up Australia program has been extended by an hour so that it now runs until 6am. Whether this means that Alan Jones will be on-air for half an hour less each day, or whether the latter parts of Andrew’s show will simply not be heard in Sydney are yet to be confirmed. Having Andrew on-air until 6am would open the door for competition to 2UE’s New Day Australia in the Syndication market, especially considering that many regional stations do not start their local breakfast show until 6am.

The 8pm-9pm block is listed as “highlights” which probably means highlights of local shows rather than the Jones/Hadley hour. 9pm-Midnight is covered by locally by Luke Grant.

Weekends are mostly syndicated from Sydney, with only the Midday-6pm block being local, hosted by TV personality Glenn Ridge. Glenn Wheeler’s Saturday night show is being extended by two hours and will start at 6pm in Melbourne. There is no mention of any broadcasting of the NRL, although I will be surprised if Melbourne Storm matches are not aired when 2GB are calling them.

3MTR will start broadcasting on 1377AM, replacing 3MP, in two and a half weeks at 6am on Monday the 19th of March with the following lineup.

So we’re looking at 13, maybe 14 hours of local content per day during the week, and six hours per day on weekends. Not anywhere near the amount of local content on 3AW, but one would expect it to be enough on weekdays to be seen as a local station. The weekends worry me though. The interstate programs might be niche programs, but things like gardening and real estate are very local subjects, and it could be difficult to make these locally relevant in multiple markets.

And what is it with radio stations and weekend morning gardening shows? Can nobody do a proper weekend breakfast program, even if it’s only on Saturday? I’d rather listen to a simulcast of Channel Nine’s Today show than most gardening shows…I just don’t understand why they are so dominant on weekends.

I also wonder if 3MTR will use 2GB’s 131 873 for their shows, of if they will have their own number, and how this will work during overlapping programming in Sydney such as the first two hours of Glenn Wheeler’s show where 2GB and 3MTR will have different shows with call-in numbers on the air. One wouldn’t expect Glenn to suddenly change phone number at 8pm…so this could be interesting. Some telephone routing magic perhaps?

Incidentally 13 1377 is owned by Aussie Mastercard, so I can’t see 3MTR buying that. 131 687 (131 MTR) is answered by “NCP” so they probably can’t buy that either. 131 873 might have to suffice, although I’m sure that 3AW will instantly run with the “see, they’re not local, that’s 2GB’s phone number” if they do that.

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3 Comments

I think this new radio sation is going to be a sydney base station,and i think i will not enjoy listening to it.How can steve price say its going to be a melbourne base keep on going 3aw

2.
Chelecee | April 9th, 2010 at 3:34 am

It all worked out very neatly for 2GB, David Oldfield’s planned day off…. then he’s gone, Frank Crook’s planned weekend off…. then he’s gone. All I can say is thank goodness there is still John Kerr at 2UE.

3.
Steady Eddie | April 9th, 2010 at 12:30 pm

I can’t see this new station being successful. Steve Price says it will be opinionated and criticised 2UE for “sitting on the fence”. Right wing shock jock radio doesn’t work in Melbourne because people there consider it a Sydney thing. Remember when Stan Zemanek tried to bring this style of radio to 3AW and it was a flop? Also radio listeners seem to be rusted onto 3AW to the point where new players don’t stand a chance. 3AK was the last attempt at a competing talk station, it had to be closed down completely and replaced by the all sport SEN. Also the relaying of programs from Sydney will be a huge problem. The last to try that was Kerry Packer in 1986 when he briefly owned 2UE and 3AK. He rebranded them as CBC and relayed most programs from Sydney. 3AW responded with an advertising blitz with the slogan “Sydney Radio? Forget it!” and the whole thing collapsed in a heap. Another big problem is the lack of specific AFL content on a station in footy-mad Melbourne. The lineup doesn’t even include a sports program like 2UE’s Sports Today, indeed the only AFL-related content seems to be input from Jason Akermanis, probably in Steve Price’s breakfast show. All in all I’m not predicting success for this new station.